And Hope Died with Her
by Peeves and Ronni
Summary: He had become bored with it all, and day by day the only thing that had entertained him was seeing her determination still burning in her eyes. So it was only natural, right? Of course when that fire died, he would do everything in his power to revive it. Severely dark Rosewick, near future au, compliant with canon until RWBY 3 ep 10
1. Preface

_**WARNING! This story contains multiple triggers and heavy plot points, do not read if you are at all uncomfortable with the following:  
-Major Character Death**_

 **Preface**

This is not a romance. It is not a story of love conquering all else, or of love as a cure to all ills; it is not the tale of love washing away the darkness of black soul, of good health and healing. This is not a bedtime fairy tale, there is no hero, no damsel, no happy ending, and no villain.

All this story has…is the man who has everything, and the girl who has nothing. The woman running, and the boy chasing her. The queen smiling on a lonely throne of fear, and the gentle king desperate to move her. The corpses of the loved, and the tortured souls that remember them.

In this world, love is an infection, a disease of the heart that toys with its victims like the monsters at the kingdom gates. There is no romance where there is affection, happiness is relative to the tragedy of existence and desire is relative to the heavy sense of loneliness. Love, in this Remnant, is a prison.

And the story of it begins with an end.

oooOOOooo

It was all burning. The city, the school, the arena… _everything_ was bathed in flames. Ruby watched in horror from the windows of the aircraft, her arms bound tightly behind her torso as Neo fiddled with her scythe a few feet away. The infamous Roman Torchwick stood beside her, a cheerful smirk plastered across his face as he watched thousands lose their lives to the flames and the Grimm. She would say that he was enjoying it too much, but then again, he was a bad guy, and victory must have been far too sweet for him to even recognize that vindictive pleasure.

Ruby continued to survey the calamity below, helpless to aide her friends as the coal black monsters descended on them in hoards. The aircraft hovered towards the docks, and Ruby let out a soft gasp as she recognized a familiar blonde girl fending off an enormous hoard of Grimm. And slowly but surely, she was losing. Ruby's face contorted further in despair as she watched her sister get pushed back further, exhausted further with each punch and losing balance quickly. With only a moment more, Yang collapsed, and Ruby let out a soft, helpless whimper.

"No…no…Yang get up, please… _get up…_ no, please, Yang…" Ruby didn't notice that Roman and Neo had turned their attention to her, her eyes had become entirely fixated on her sister as she watched the blonde struggle to lift up her torso. A pack of Ursai surrounded her, waiting as she continued trying to get back on her feet. But she fell. And they dived for her. _"NO!"_ Ruby screamed in despair as she threw herself against the window, helpless and crying as her sister disappeared under the pack of hungry Grimm. "Get up Yang! You can still fight them! Please just get up! Please! Don't you dare die on me! Yang! Yaaaaaaannng!"

She didn't notice as Roman pulled her off the window. She could see the Ursai disbanding through her blurred eyes, and no matter how much she tried to tell herself otherwise, nothing could change the facts. Yang was dead. Ruby's chest heaved up and down sporadically as her breathing became labored, her tears poured down her cheeks in streams. "Don't leave me…" She gasped as a large hand clad in a leather glove came over her eyes, and she heard Torchwick click his tongue in annoyance.

"Jeez, Red, if you don't like the view, don't look at it," he muttered as her tears continued to fall, her breath escaping her in labored hiccups. She had only just become aware of his other arm wrapped firmly over her. She focused on evening out her breathing, holding until she had calmed herself before struggling out of Roman's arms. He hadn't expected it, and as he staggered back in surprise, she fell back harshly onto the glass with a resounding "thwack". Roman coughed a little, hesitating a moment before his one visible eye returned to her with a sense of calculated rage, as if he were a feral beast examining his prey.

It didn't faze her. "I…will never let you win," Ruby growled as she struggled to her feet. "It doesn't matter how hard you tie me down…or how many times you beat me…I'll never stop fighting you!"

His frown persisted for a second before his lips cracked in a wry grin, his head craned back and his laugh echoing across the control room. "Man, Red, you are a riot! What are you gonna do, hm? Shout? Scream? Are you gonna try to bite us to death with your baby teeth?"

"Shut up!"

"You're really not in a position to be pushing your luck, Red," he smirked, "I'm not obligated to keep you alive or treat you nicely. And frankly…" Roman picked his cane up and started towards her, stopping only inches away before using the handle of his weapon to lift her chin. "There are so many things I would love to do to you right now that I simply lost count."

Ruby wrinkled her nose in response. "You're disgusting," she hissed.

"I'm a criminal, kid, it comes with the territory. Now then," Roman stepped back, his trademark smirk still plastered across his face. "Neo and I have a few more things to get done before we catch up with our boss, and I'd rather you didn't get in the way, so I'm afraid you'll have to take a small nap. Neo, do you think you could give little Red here her medicine?"

Neo smiled and stepped forward, pulling a syringe out from behind her back as her left eye suddenly changed from brown to pink. Ruby backed up instinctively, pressing herself firmly against the window while the smaller woman advanced towards her. Her glare persisted even as she tried to shrink away from the needle, but powerless as she was, it didn't take Neo much effort to pin her arm down and administer the drug. From there, it was no more than a waiting game—Ruby's balance slowly deteriorated and her legs collapsed beneath her, her vision blurred and her awareness of her surroundings became limited to cold metal beneath her and the bright orange light beyond the glass. The last thing she could recall was seeing the sky.

It was the last time she'd see it for nearly two years.

oooOOOooo

 _Rosewick trash Peeves reporting in…yeah. If you're still expecting anything cheery from this story, abandon that hope now. I'll be pasting some disclaimers below that will be present at the end of each chapter from now on, please acquaint yourselves with them as soon as possible._

 _1._ _I do not own RWBY or any of its characters_

 _2._ _This will be a future AU, but it will be near future and will still include implications of sexual content at the least. Thus, count this as underage, since Ruby will not be eighteen quite yet._

 _3._ _This story will contain a lot of triggers, on AO3, they will be listed in the story tags, but on ffn, I will not have that privilege. So if you are reading this on ffn, I will provide a list of trigger warnings for the chapter at the top, so please read them to ensure that you know whether or not any content will trigger or squick you._

 _4._ _I cannot stress this enough—DON'T LIKE DON'T READ. I hate saying this since I think it should be a give in, but I mean it. This plot vein is not for the faint of heart, and even if you like my writing, I won't take responsibility for any distaste or discomfort you feel because frankly, I warned you, and I'm going to do a lot to continue warning you._

 _5._ _Please,_ _ **please for the love of all that is holy,**_ _do not read this story with the thought that any of the relationship depicted will be "cute" or "romantic", and don't refer to it as such once we get to areas where affection is exhibited. This story may involve rosewick as a pairing, and it may involve a love story, but it is not romantic, or sweet, and it should not be idealized. A lot of this story will center around a very unhealthy relationship, a lot of the factors in that are_ _ **real issues**_ _and I am not going to romanticize any of that. Most of the relationships in this story, much like the story itself, are written with the express intention of being fucked up._

 _6._ _I do not condone any of the messed up shit that happens in this story._

 _Rosewick trash Peeves out until next chapter._


	2. It Began Once Nothing was Left

_**WARNING! This story contains multiple triggers and heavy plot points, do not read if you are at all uncomfortable with the following:  
-Suicide Attempts  
-Physical Violence**_

 **It Began Once Nothing was Left**

There was a crack in the ceiling above Roman's bed. It was not a particularly large crack, it was, in fact, fairly difficult to notice unless you positioned your head in a perfectly snug position in the bottom right corner of the mattress, which just so happened to be exactly what Roman had done about fifteen minutes ago. And he hadn't moved since.

This one tiny crack was the single blemish his penthouse bedroom had received since Cinder's victory, the only outward blemish of an otherwise pristine living space, which he cleaned himself once, twice, or maybe even three times a day, just so he would have something to do.

Over the past two years, Roman had come to the understanding that, much unlike Cinder, he did not enjoy total victory. It wasn't as if the victory hadn't been sweet in the instance, but in the absence of a new problem, he found himself struggling with a much more resilient beast: boredom. Roman never thought he'd ever spend so much time doing absolutely nothing, where the absence of conflict or opposition would leave him so numb to any other feeling.

There were always hobbies, small meaningless activities that he used to waste his time, but nothing in the world of Remnant made him feel alive anymore. Well, he thought as his lips spread into a soft grin, almost nothing. Roman sat up from his bed as he recalled an activity he hadn't attended to in almost a month, shuffling lightly over to his dresser to make himself more presentable for the occasion: visiting Red.

Roman had justified his decision to keep Ruby Rose alive all this time rather neatly. To start, her life or death, in the wake of Cinder's victory, had become rather inconsequential. Once she had been incapacitated by Neo on the General's ship, it took mere inexpensive aura-neutralizing drug to keep her that way, and with her enormous scythe dismantled by Neo shortly after her defeat, Red was nothing more than a harmless teenager with an unwavering and highly entertaining hero complex. He'd initially only left her alive with the intention of killing her once her entertainment value diminished, but after a while, her anger and blatant desire to oppose him fed his own passion in a manner that nothing else in his life nowadays could.

Roman practically felt a skip in his step as he sauntered over to his closet to collect his signature white coat, slipping it on rather easily before locating his old leather gloves and replacing them over his hands so smoothly that one could equate it to clockwork. He smiled a little wider as he lifted his hat off the dresser and placed it neatly on his head, giving it a soft, reassuring pat before checking himself in the mirror and making for the door, grabbing Melodic Cudgel only as formality on the way out of his apartment. A quick call to the men Cinder had appointed him would provide him with airship transport to where he'd left Red, and a mere half hour later, he found himself walking into jail almost too large to only have one prisoner.

The guards posted at her location greeted him with their usual level of zeal, which, when combined with his usual excitement about seeing Red, made him feel monumentally better about the times when he simply couldn't find anything to do with himself. At the least, he wasn't guarding a single prisoner that he was under strict orders never to talk to—especially considering how difficult it would be for him to resist teasing Red. Roman navigated the stark halls of the prison from memory until he arrived at the solid steel door of Ruby's cell; his smirk still sat faithfully on his lips as he unbolted the reinforced lock and stepped into the dimly lit room beyond.

His lone green eye surveyed his surroundings, retracing the simple, grey plaster and the negligible furnishings of a single chair and dirty toilet bowl before his vision fell onto the limp body chained to the floor in front of him. She looked rather disgusting, as per usual—after all, two years absence of a bath or any grooming wouldn't tend to make someone nice to look at. And the large, ratty grey t shirt she'd been wearing all this time didn't lend her any help.

Instead, Ruby's pale skin had gone even paler, the lacking pigment left her sickly in the light of the door. Her hair had grown a good ten inches from its original length, possibly longer, considering the oily tangle that her black mop had become. Her limbs had grown thinner, frailer, and her face…Roman often had the impression that Red didn't sleep as much as she should, for she never failed to have nice, darkened rings below her eyes.

Roman let out a soft breath and grinned a little wider as he finally addressed her. "Hello Red." She flinched only just at the sound of his voice, and he walked around her in order to collect the metal chair in the corner and sit down. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Since our last chat."

Ruby's head turned away towards the floor, and Roman merely chuckled in response. "What? You didn't miss me? Admit it, you must like the company by now."

Roman leaned on his cane, his smile all too wide as he waited patiently for Ruby to look up at him. After a moment more, she did, but instead of grinning a little wider at the sight of her expression, he instead found himself frowning slightly. Something was wrong here. Roman searched Red's expression for a moment before clearing his throat and attempting to act as if he hadn't noticed. He tried to convince himself that whatever seemed off was probably a trick of the lighting, or maybe Red was maybe having just one off day. He hadn't paid her a visit in an effort to feel more pessimistic.

"So," he continued, "Are you curious about what it's like out there? Since my last little update."

"…Cinder's rule now extends over all of the kingdoms, none of the other Maidens have been located yet, the Resistance has made a pitiful amount of unsuccessful attacks, Emerald is still missing, and Mercury is still trying to find her," Ruby murmured softly after a somewhat long breadth of silence.

He frowned slightly at that. "Who told you?"

"You did," she replied, her eyes turning to the floor, "Your last five reports have all been the same."

"Ah. Well, color me surprised. I didn't think you'd remember this long."

"Do I look like I have something better to do with my time?" Ruby tugged on her restraints in demonstration, her voice still mellow and quiet despite the light snark.

He let out another chuckle. "No, I suppose you don't, Red." There was a rather long awkward pause, Roman rapped his fingers against his cane for a moment before tilting his head and speaking again. "Have you had any other visitors lately?"

"I think Neo came to make sure I was still alive a while ago. Other than you two, no one else knows I'm here. Well, no one that cares, anyway."

Roman's brow furrowed at that, noting the rather uncharacteristic complacency and self-deprecation of Red's answer. Something was definitely wrong here. "Well that was nice of her. Still barely stomaching the jail food?"

"Torchwick, you had them start injecting nutrients directly into my blood stream ten visits ago. I haven't even seen a plate since."

"Ah…yes, I do recall that…"

"You don't have to stay if you have nothing else to say, you know," Ruby murmured as she shifted slightly on the floor. "It's not like you usually stay long in the first place."

"Aww, but it's been so long since we've had a good talk," Roman feigned a pout, "I wanted to know what you've been up to while I was gone."

"…Hard to say, I've been a bit tied up," she noted as she tugged lightly at her wrist restraints again.

He snorted at that. "You don't say…" Roman frowned a bit more as Ruby looked away from him, hesitating only a moment more walking over and lifting Red's head up by her hair line. She made no effort to struggle. His eyes wandered her visage, slowly coming to recognize exactly what was bothering him. Ruby's eyes were dead. A deep, genuine frown marred his features, and he rose to his feet. "Well, I have some business to attend to, so…until next time, Red."

"Sure, Torchwick."

Roman stepped over Red and shuffled toward the door, but he only made it a step further before stopping dead in his tracks as she spoke again.

"See you again in hell."

Roman didn't need to turn around to know that Ruby was about to commit suicide, and later on he would admit that his success in averting her attempt was mostly, if not entirely based in luck. He could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins as he swerved back towards her, diving for her frail form and managing to shove one gloved hand between her lips as he pinned her firmly to the floor, preventing her from biting her own tongue off. Roman barely heard her muffled whimper beyond his own heavy breathing, and as he looked down at her frightened visage, he felt an unbridled amount of rage. "What the hell, Red?"

oooOOOooo

Ruby had no idea how long it had been since Roman's last visit, nor did she have a concrete idea how long she'd really been locked up. It felt like a century had passed, but Ruby often got to thinking that she must have simply been weak-willed and it hadn't been very long at all. In her more delusional moments, she even thought that perhaps Vale was still burning beyond the walls of her cage—though that was probably impossible. All Ruby knew…was that she'd grown some disgusting attachment to her visits from Roman. In her time here, they were the only things that made her feel even remotely like herself again…or at least, they had been.

Ruby knew that the time since Roman's last visit had been longer than usual, and she hated how glum she'd felt waiting for his return. She had hated him at the beginning—rightfully so—but as the sole interaction she ever experienced, her loneliness reached a level of severity without his presence, and as much as she'd initially hated admitting it, she missed him when he was gone. But this time had been different. He had left her here longer, and by the time he got back, she couldn't feel…anything. Or at least, nothing that she would have felt before her capture. She felt no anger or spite, no passionate need to fight him. She felt empty, and betrayed, and somewhere buried in the rubble of her demolished heart she even felt happy to see him.

As they talked, it became even clearer to her, though she didn't know when it had happened. By all intents and purposes, the girl Ruby had been before the war was gone forever, replaced instead by a complacent doll. It made her more depressed than anything else in the world, and as Roman began to walk away, she came to the conclusion that the only way to follow her lost hope was to kill her body as well. And she would have succeeded. If she hadn't wanted to say goodbye. It took Roman less time to respond than she had expected and as he pinned her down by her mouth, she whimpered, her chest heaving up and down at the painful grip on her lips. She could feel his hand trembling from his rage as he glared down at her viciously.

"I seem to recall you telling me that you'd never stop fighting, Red. Was that just talk?"

Ruby whimpered again, tears stinging her eyes as her vision wandered the man above her frantically. He let out another forceful growl.

"Why aren't you struggling?"

She felt herself beginning to tremble as she tried to shake her head, only to gasp for air as Roman replaced his hand on her neck.

"Why are you just now deciding to off yourself? Hm?"

"Do I look like I have anything left to live for?" Ruby panted weakly before squeaking as his grip tightened around her neck.

"Then why did you try to do it in front of me?"

Ruby turned her head away from him, only to have him grab her roughly by the chin and turn her back. He looked far more livid than she'd ever expected him to be. They held eye contact a moment more before Roman growled again and let go of her, standing up storming for the cell door before Ruby could fight past the dazed feeling that came with being mildly choked. She gasped for air a few more moments before turning her head towards the door, squinting in confusion as she realized that her cell was still open. Mere moments later, Roman returned, accompanied by two rather frazzled guards.

"I told you louts already," he growled venomously as they stalled at the door, "unshackle her. Now."

The guards scurried into her cell and followed their order, and within a few moments, Ruby's wrists and ankles were free of the steel cuffs that she'd been wearing since the start of her incarceration. The guards stood again, glancing nervously between her and each other before Roman let out an angry growl.

"Now get out."

They scrambled out of the cell quickly, and as Roman approached her again, Ruby's brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Get up," he demanded softly, and Ruby only hesitated a moment before he repeated himself more forcefully. "I said get up."

Ruby complied as quickly as she could, her legs slowly bending at the knees while her arms struggled to lift her torso. It took her a minute, perhaps, he balance faltering several times until she finally managed to steady herself before him. She looked up him cautiously, and he glared down at her a moment before grabbing her by the back of her neck and dragging her out of the cell. She yelped and stumbled after him as best as she could, but after having to right her a few times when she stumbled, Roman simply picked her up and threw her over one shoulder. She didn't struggle, but a slight modest blush kept onto her face as she realized just how exposed she still was. Not that is seemed to faze Roman in the slightest.

Once they made it past the jail's entrance Roman dropped Ruby unceremoniously on the hard concrete, letting her collapse onto her hands and knees as he called over a few armed men. "Bring the transport over here," he ordered, as Ruby coughed, wincing a little as she felt the harsh ground scraping against her skin. "Get up," he ordered her again, and despite the tremor of her legs, she stood, her balance faltering at a somewhat strong gust of wind before she finally managed to look up at the sky for the first time in two years.

And just like the walls of her cell, it was grey.

oooOOOooo

 _Rosewick trash Peeves reporting in with your chapterly disclaimers:_

 _1._ _I do not own RWBY or any of its characters_

 _2._ _This will be a future AU, but it will be near future and will still include implications of sexual content at the least. Thus, count this as underage, since Ruby will not be eighteen quite yet._

 _3._ _This story will contain a lot of triggers, on AO3, they will be listed in the story tags, but on ffn, I will not have that privilege. So if you are reading this on ffn, I will provide a list of trigger warnings for the chapter at the top, so please read them to ensure that you know whether or not any content will trigger or squick you._

 _4._ _I cannot stress this enough—DON'T LIKE DON'T READ. I hate saying this since I think it should be a give in, but I mean it. This plot vein is not for the faint of heart, and even if you like my writing, I won't take responsibility for any distaste or discomfort you feel because frankly, I warned you, and I'm going to do a lot to continue warning you._

 _5._ _Please, **please for the love of all that is holy,** do not read this story with the thought that any of the relationship depicted will be "cute" or "romantic", and don't refer to it as such once we get to areas where affection is exhibited. This story may involve rosewick as a pairing, and it may involve a love story, but it is not romantic, or sweet, and it should not be idealized. A lot of this story will center around a very unhealthy relationship, a lot of the factors in that are **real issues** and I am not going to romanticize any of that. Most of the relationships in this story, much like the story itself, are written with the express intention of being fucked up._

 _6._ _I do not condone any of the messed up shit that happens in this story._

 _Rosewick trash Peeves out until next chapter._


	3. An Unavoidable Proposition

_**WARNING! This story contains multiple triggers and heavy plot points, do not read if you are at all uncomfortable with the following:  
-Nudity  
-Physical Violence  
-Manipulation**_

 **An Unavoidable Proposition**

Roman's anger had not subsided in the short time it had taken them to return to his home, and Ruby found herself being pushed through the grand entrance hall of an apartment building that had remarkably survived the war. A short elevator trip led them up to the top floor, and before long Roman had pushed her into his apartment, through the halls and into his bathroom, at which point he let her stumble forward and catch herself on the rim of his rather large bathtub. She heard the click of the door behind her, and she turned cautiously to see Roman removing his hat and his gloves.

"Torchwick, what are you doing? Why did you bring me here?"

"I'm not exactly in the mood for explanations right now, Red, so if you could simply be kind enough to strip of that ratty t shirt and save me the trouble, I might try to be gentle," Roman replied absently as he began to slide off his coat and untie his ascot.

Ruby's eyes widened as her expression contorted in fear, and she shook her head frantically in response. "N-No! I don't care if you're angry about what happened earlier, if you're going to do that to me I'll just try again!"

Roman stalled just as he undid the knot on his scarf his eye slowly turning to meet hers as he let the fabric fall to the floor. There was a brief pause of silence; Ruby hugged herself tighter and squeezed her eyes shut as Roman started towards her. "Honestly," he muttered as he strode past her, "of all the base accusations…"

Ruby's eyes flew open at the sound of rushing water, and she glanced back to see Roman messing with the shower knobs. "What…?"

"You've been sitting in the same prison cell for a good two years now," Roman stated bluntly as he flipped a switch to turn on the shower. "You need a shower."

"So…so you aren't…"

"No," Roman interjected immediately, glaring at her as he leaned down and yanked her up by the arm. "And frankly, the fact that you would assume that as my intention is extremely insulting. Now lose the t shirt already, so I can burn it later."

Ruby studied Roman a moment longer, swallowing hard before slowly removing the only garment she had. She blushed as it fell, hugging herself in an attempt to hide her body and averting her face from his. Roman didn't seem to notice or care, and he grabbed her by her bare arms before lifting her over the edge of the tub and shoving her directly under the water. Ruby let out a pained wail as the hot water enveloped her, nearly crying as his hands kept her firmly under the spray. "I-It's too hot!"

"Don't be such a wimp, Red," Roman muttered, "two years' worth of filth isn't gonna come off in lukewarm rainwater, it needs to be hot if it's gonna work…"

Ruby whimpered again as she began to tremble, hugging herself a little as one of Roman's hands left her arm. After a moment more, the other hand pulled her out from under the water, and her breath stuttered a little as she watched him apply body wash to shower brush. In another moment, he had her bent over the edge of the tub, holding her down firmly as the rough bristles of the shower brush scraped painfully against her back. She let out another pain filled cry, but Roman made no response and continued until it felt as if he'd ripped every inch of skin off her back. He then pushed her back under the water stream and repeated the process on her arms, chest and legs, until finally all that was left was her midsection, which she eventually let him as well despite her initial protest.

After about another hour or two spent washing her hair a good five times, giving her a haircut, clipping her nails and shaving her in any area that needed it, Roman wrapped her in a large, fluffy blanket and sat her down on his bed. By this point Ruby was not only baffled but almost in a state of shock. in less than three hours, the man who had kept her prisoner for what had apparently been two years had now released her from her cell, taken her into his home and had provided her with every bit of hygienic care that she'd been denied in that tiny cell. It wasn't as if he'd been extremely careful with her, but something about his actions almost seemed…too kind.

Ruby's eyes traveled cautiously over to Roman, who was now seated on the windowsill with a cigar between his lips. His expression was unreadable. Ruby curled into her blanket a little before speaking up. "Torchwick, why did you bring me here? Why are you doing all of this?" His gaze flicked over to her apathetically, but he made no move to speak, so she continued. "Why? Why now? You were about to leave me back there again, why did you stop? Why'd you stop me from…" Ruby trailed off, drawing in a deep gulp of air before proceeding, "why did you keep me from killing myself?"

Roman's stare bored into her, and he tilted his head slightly before speaking. "If you didn't want to be stopped, why didn't you wait until I was gone?"

"…You didn't answer my question."

"I'm didn't feel inclined to, and either way…" Roman stood from the windowsill and ambled towards her. He lifted her chin as he reached her, his other hand reaching up to remove his cigar from his lips. "You're still not in any position to demand an answer."

Ruby looked away, biting her lip a little as he lowered himself down to the mattress. "Why are you doing this?"

"I don't have to give you any other reason beyond 'I want to.' Not that that would be such a far-fetched answer." Roman tugged Ruby's chin forward a bit, and her gaze returned to him. "I'm not entirely sure why I'd have any interest in stopping you. Up until now I'd thought that whether you lived or died was the least of my worries, and prior to capturing you I would have liked nothing more than to see your head on a stake. Strange, though…"

"What?"

"You were serious about committing suicide back in that cell, yet you haven't tried once since since I brought you here…"

Ruby bit her lip again, she felt herself beginning to tremble as Roman leaned a little closer. "So the question is, are you waiting until I'm not around, or do you just feel better when I'm here?"

Her gaze flitted across the floor. "I…I don't know…"

"Huh. Well, it would seem that we're at an impasse. I'm not interested in letting you die, and you don't want to go back to that cell."

"I'm not sure being here with you is much better…"

"You wound me, Red."

Ruby looked back at Roman in time to see him smiling at her as his hand fell away from her chin. Her frown deepened while her brow furrowed; she was far too cautious of his uncharacteristic generosity. He leaned back, his eyes wandering her for a second before he spoke up again. "So. Why don't we make a deal?"

"What…what kind of deal…?"

"The kind that you honestly can't refuse, Red. One that gives us both what we want."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'm letting you out of your cage," Roman said with a wry smile as he leaned towards her. "But on…two conditions. First, anywhere I go, you follow, and second, if I tell you to do something, you do it. No matter what it is."

Ruby let out a nervous laugh and fixed her eyes on the bed. "It sounds like you're asking me to become your little pet."

"Are you under the impression that you aren't already?" Roman grabbed her by the chin again, but this time any feigned gentleness had been discarded. "Your life has belonged to me since the moment you got captured on that airship. I'm simply offering to give you more leg room."

"…And if I refuse?"

"Then you return to your cell with a muzzle, I double your guards and you get to continue rotting in there. And this time you'll go back without that ratty t shirt."

Ruby swallowed hard and tightened her grip on the blanket she was wrapped in. Neither choice seemed to be a winning solution—on one hand, spending all her time with Torchwick would likely result in unspeakable terrors she didn't care to imagine, but on the other hand…being tied back down in that cell…and entirely nude on top of that…it seemed like an invitation for misfortunes far worse than anything Roman could do to her out here.

"If I stay out here with you…what else would I get? Other than more leg room."

"Anything your heart desires, Little Red. Provided that you're obedient."

"What if I want to be rid of you?"

"Well seeing as that would be disobedient…" Roman leaned towards her briefly, and she flinched as she felt his lips by her ear. "You can't have that."

"So anything except my freedom."

"Essentially."

"…What sort of things will you ask me to do for you?" Ruby bit her lip a little as Roman's hand retreated from her face again.

"You certainly have a lot of questions, Red. Is it really this tough of a choice?"

"What would you order me to do?" she repeated softly. "Would it…would it involve…" Ruby shivered slightly before finally managing to form the words she needed. "Are you going to make me have sex with you?"

Roman stalled at that, his lone eye wandering her with a stare so cold that it only served to make her tremble more. "Exactly what gives you the impression that I'm attracted to malnourished teenage girls?"

"You told me that I had to do anything you sa—"

"While I won't deny the possibility that I might demand that of you somewhere down the line, I'm not in the business of forcing myself onto girls that don't want me—especially when they still vaguely resemble a starved corpse and have zero sexual experience." Ruby shrunk a little bit at that, making Roman snort slightly. "Please don't tell me that you thought your blatant virginity was a secret."

"I-I—don't tease me a-about it…" Ruby mumbled as she felt herself beginning to blush. "It's not like I had a lot of chances to date anyone in that six by six concrete block."

"It was six and a half, and either way, you still aren't worth the effort right now," he said as he brought a hand to her cheek, "And while I might change my mind, you might too. So what's it gonna be, Little Red? Me, or the muzzle?"

Ruby took in a soft gulp of air, her eyes studied the man in front of her meekly. She still didn't trust him, and she doubted she ever would, but at this point…she'd rather be a slave to the devil than go back to the cage he's kept her in for those two years. "I suppose…that you have a deal…"

Roman grinned impishly, causing Ruby to try shrinking back before he grabbed her by the wrist. "Excellent." Roman then yanked her out of the blanket he'd given her, leaving her bare once more as he dragged her over to his closet. "Now then, Red…let's give you something to wear…I can't have you walking through Vale naked."

"W-Where are we going?" Ruby stammered, covering herself frantically in bewilderment as she watched Roman sift through his own clothes for something to dress her in.

"Well to start…" Roman paused as he pulled a long sleeved black shirt of his closet and held it up against her before pulling it off the hanger. "Arms up," he commanded softly, and she whimpered slightly before complying. "We'll need to get you some clothes of your own, now won't we?"

oooOOOooo

 _Rosewick trash Peeves reporting in with your chapterly disclaimers:_

 _1._ _I do not own RWBY or any of its characters_

 _2._ _This will be a future AU, but it will be near future and will still include implications of sexual content at the least. Thus, count this as underage, since Ruby will not be eighteen quite yet._

 _3._ _This story will contain a lot of triggers, on AO3, they will be listed in the story tags, but on ffn, I will not have that privilege. So if you are reading this on ffn, I will provide a list of trigger warnings for the chapter at the top, so please read them to ensure that you know whether or not any content will trigger or squick you._

 _4._ _I cannot stress this enough—DON'T LIKE DON'T READ. I hate saying this since I think it should be a give in, but I mean it. This plot vein is not for the faint of heart, and even if you like my writing, I won't take responsibility for any distaste or discomfort you feel because frankly, I warned you, and I'm going to do a lot to continue warning you._

 _5._ _Please, **please for the love of all that is holy,** do not read this story with the thought that any of the relationship depicted will be "cute" or "romantic", and don't refer to it as such once we get to areas where affection is exhibited. This story may involve rosewick as a pairing, and it may involve a love story, but it is not romantic, or sweet, and it should not be idealized. A lot of this story will center around a very unhealthy relationship, a lot of the factors in that are **real issues** and I am not going to romanticize any of that. Most of the relationships in this story, much like the story itself, are written with the express intention of being fucked up._

 _6._ _I do not condone any of the messed up shit that happens in this story._

 _Rosewick trash Peeves out until next chapter._


	4. PSA

**ALL FICS PSA**

So…before you all lynch me for faking you out, yes, this is not a story update. This is an update on the state of things, a tell all to let you know where in production stage my stories are and to update you on the state of my life and why it's taking so long. So. To begin with the latter…for those of you not already aware, I'm a college student, and as of last semester, an upperclassman. Now last semester I had six classes and that was the reasoning behind my packed schedule, this semester I'm back down to five but I'm also working two jobs and I'm prepping for a school trip to California and doing an amount of work to follow a class I'm not in during my free time.

I've had about…no time to sit down and write in the past month and a half so nothing is being written right now. In fact, for now it is safe to assume that unless I say otherwise (and even if I say otherwise let's be honest here) nothing is in production between late August and mid-December, and nothing is in production between mid-January and early May. So that's the state of my life right now, for those of you that have been asking. As for those of you who have been asking about my fics (mostly about, surprise surprise, Still Dreaming), I'm gonna list the state of each of my fics below here, so if you're waiting on more than one and your inbox is flooded with emails about this one chapter for all of them (Sorry m8) you only have to check one fic to know the state of all of them. So the list goes as follows:

1\. **Still Dreaming:** and after over a year of time to work on it and all the fans asking, the 30th chapter of Still Dreaming is…! …not started yet. I…I'm really sorry guys. I have the entire thing planned out, it's gonna be super long, its gonna tie everything up, it will be the last chapter of this fic and…my muse is completely uncooperative. Now I write fast once my inspiration strikes so I will try to work on and get it done for this coming winter break, but I know myself well enough to not make promises.

2\. **In the Arms of a Thief:** So I actually finished of the rough draft of the upcoming chapter a few weeks ago, but life got busy and my keyboard is currently sticking on several keys so transcribing it onto a computer has been a grueling process

3\. **The Worst Timing:** Much like the readers of Still Dreaming I'm sure all of you are either tired of waiting or no longer interested. Unfortunately, much like Still Dreaming, I have not started the next chapter, and honestly I can't remember where I was going with it. In all likelihood if I can't remember I might pull this story from my library so as not to immerse any other poor souls in it only to leave them hanging (if you still want access to the story you should be able to download it and if you can't just pm me)

4\. **And Hope Died with Her:** Well I have the chapter number written! -kicks self- Okay so honestly this one is extremely uncomfortable for me to write and I struggle to make decisions on it. It might be pulled like The Worst Timing

5\. **Team RRBY:** y'all should know that I posted this prematurely, before I was ready to focus the necessary amount of energy on this au. I want to work on this, and the second chapter is started I just…am very busy.

6\. **Grimm:** Like RRBY, the second chapter is started. It's just not complete.

7\. **Delusions of Grandeur:** So if you're on AO3 you might have noticed that this is your second update today…sorry, that's because I kept forgetting to post the most recent chapter. Either way, you'll be pleased to know that this fic is the most up to date—the last update is recent even on ffn and the next 14 chapters are planned out.

8\. **Frozen Hearts and Stolen Peaches/Neighbors:** I know that between both of these groups there are maybe 20 of you so I'm just combining the section, because it's pretty much the same message. The next installment is started. Just sit tight

9\. **Spelling Lessons:** …I am so sorry. I'm actually overhauling and restarting this because when I started it, there weren't that many episodes out for Little Witch Academia and I had six classes that slowly drowned m and kept me from writing. I based most of my decisions on headcanons that now have, for the most part, been disproven, so I'm going back and playing with the plot a little more. For the sake of it, the first chapter will likely remain the same. The second is up in the air.

And that's everything. I hope this clears everything up. I'll be back as soon as I can.


End file.
